In Palm Bay, south Brevard, worry over crime is up following deadly carjacking, shootings

PALM BAY - A deadly carjacking.

The discovery of a body in the wildlands of the notorious "Compound."

A shooting at an apartment complex that left four young people injured, rattled residents and drew Palm Bay officers from across the city to the scene.

While there no firm answers for the recent back-to-back spate of violence unfolding in Palm Bay — Brevard County's largest city with over 130,000 residents — law enforcement and advocates alike cite access to weapons and a different breed of indifferent young offenders as a major factor.

"I believe this generation of younger folks is going to be great, but there is a small percent who are out using guns and making it more dangerous," Palm Bay Police Chief Mario Augello said.

Similar high-profile spurts in crime with young offenders has impacted other communities in Brevard, including Titusville, Cocoa and Melbourne. It remains a troubling trend across the nation, with cities coping with sporadic violent crime and the proliferation of weapons — including those once used by the military — sometimes used by younger and younger offenders steeped in music romanticizing murder, TikTok fight videos and video games.

That perfect storm of guns and youthful offenders Augello points to has residents in Palm Bay and surrounding cities on edge.

On Sept. 8, officers searching the Compound — a 12-square mile wasteland of paved roads and brush in south Palm Bay — found the bullet-pocked remains of a man who had gone missing after a random conversation with strangers he met at a Palm Bay gas station.

On Sept. 12, rapid-fire gunshots tore into four young bodies, drawing Palm Bay officers from across the city to The Park apartment complex.

The next day, officers raised the crime scene tape again, this time at a 7-Eleven parking lot where a 56-year-old man was left lying on the pavement bleeding from gunshot wounds, his car stolen at random. Arrested in that case: a 23-year-old man with ties to Indian River County.

Then on Sept. 17, in the ordinarily quiet enclave of West Melbourne, two brothers — who police said forced their way into an apartment at The Reserves — were shot. Police said the one of the men, believed to be in their 20s, was fatally wounded. His brother was seriously injured and one of several residents in the apartment, grazed by a bullet, police said. Detectives are now trying to determine if it was a break-in or an ongoing feud over a woman was the issue. Police have not named the brothers.

In Palm Bay, and across the county — where the sounds of gunshots in neighborhoods are becoming more common — law enforcement agencies are talking about age-old solutions, from situational awareness from citizens to funding for more community policing and collaborations with residents to curb crime.

"After George Floyd was killed, you had agencies, everyone, wanting to walk the neighborhoods," said Augello, whose city has focused on community policing for decades, from pick-up basketball to funding ice cream trucks for kids and neighborhood meetings.

"But in Palm Bay, we had been doing that. And we need to continue to have community-based policing and engagement, constant engagement."

A snapshot of major cities across the U.S. shows that violent crimes — homicides, aggravated batteries and robberies — may be leveling off after the COVID pandemic. But according to the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice think tank, such crimes remain elevated compared to 2019, the year before the deadly virus fully emerged, prompting social shutdowns and closed schools.

The recent episodes in Palm Bay and in recent months nearby in Melbourne and West Melbourne, while not linked, all involve gun violence. Many of the guns involved in some of the shootings or armed incidents are stolen from unlocked cars, Augello said.

"You think about it, we've added 12,000 people to our city in the last few years. Unfortunately, when a city grows, so does the crime," Augello said, adding that the crimes are not limited to any one demographic of race or gender.

Brevard murders, by the numbers

In Brevard County, the number of homicides has steadily increased since 2018, when there were 39 reported homicides. In 2020, that number peaked at 48, a review of court, police and medical examiner records shows.

Previously, the highest reported number of homicides for Brevard was 46 in 1986, when the population was 349,000 people, the local economy stumbled in wake of the space shuttle Challenger disaster and the crack cocaine epidemic was raging, records show.

This year to date, there have been 37 reported homicides in Brevard — a county of 625,000 residents — since the beginning of the year. Firearms were involved in at least 30 of those deaths — from a Mims woman who authorities said was showing her friend a gun when it went off to a Rockledge man who investigators said shot four people to death in a Canaveral Groves home.

But the unusual aspect of the Palm Bay cases is that two of the homicides appear to be random.

The slayings also come nearly nine months after two Palm Bay teens, Jeremiah Brown, 14, and Travon Anthony Jr.,16, were found shot to death in the Compound on Christmas night. One of the teens was shot dead near the craggy, darkened road while the other apparently try to run before being felled by bullets in the tall grass.

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And although there have been no arrests in that case, police say they continue to watch others they believe who may have connections to the deadly shootings — other juveniles, including one teen set to be released from from custody this month on other unrelated charges.

Chrisel Brown, whose son Jeremiah’s shooting pushed her into the role of a community advocate, worries that the shootings will continue and that other parents will lose their children if awareness isn’t raised. The nursing student said residents are hearing stories about what is happening on the surface but not details of what is happening on the streets, from teens being bullied to gangs and youth with no fear roaming the streets with guns.

“There’s something lacking. We have to do something to show these young people other ways, better ways,” said Brown, who talks with Palm Bay detectives on a weekly basis to discuss her son's case.

“When you pass laws to give these young people the option to carry guns without the proper training or learning responsibility, it’s scary."

'Isolated incidents'

The most recent violent episodes moved Palm Bay Mayor Rob Medina to post a recorded message reminding residents to stay diligent.

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“We acknowledge that in the last week our city has experienced a few isolated incidents of criminal activity that have understandably raised concerns. They do not reflect the overall safety of our city,” Medina said, flanked by Palm Bay City Manager Suzanne Sherman and Chief Augello.

“Crime can happen anywhere and random acts of violence can happen even in the safest of communities."

The attempted carjacking case, involving a 56-year-old Palm Bay man who worked at Malabar Liquors, raised concern even more.

The man, who was not named by police, had stopped at a 7-Eleven store for two minutes when he stepped back outside and was approached by a man identified as 23-year-old Evan Chambliss.

Police said Chambliss shot the man in the chest and abdomen, then took the man’s Toyota Corolla before being arrested in Indian River County after a high-speed chase. Detectives said Chambliss — charged with first-degree murder — even called a woman saying that he "did something bad" but was driving on the way to see her, reports show. The carjacking was a random act, police said.

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“He was a kind man, a happy man,” said Bela Patel, the co-owner of Malabar Liquors, of the deceased.

“This was definitely scary, yes, tragic. His wife is just distraught. This has destroyed his family."

Making connections, being aware

More must be done to connect intentionally with younger generations to emphasize the importance of life and being good citizens, Chief Augello said.

He adds that residents must also continue to be aware of their surroundings to watch for any potential wrongdoing and to be prepared.

Brown agrees that more should be done to connect with youth. She plans to set up a foundation in her son’s name to offer crime prevention programs, but said the truth may be more complicated.

“I want to save them from the streets. After my son’s murder, we protested and went to city hall; we talked about the Compound. But nothing was done," Brown said.

"We have to be proactive because part of it is that these kids doing these things don’t feel that the police can get to them. This is way bigger than people think."

Across Brevard, there have been drivebys, shootings and other crimes linked to teens and young adults, with some leading investigators tied to would-be gangs or groups.

One such case happened in March with the shooting death of 18-year-old Rondell Trevon Brown, an aspiring rapper from Melbourne, who was fatally wounded during a video shoot with spectators at Spessard Holland Park.

“From everything our investigation has shown us so far, this activity is all gang-related, there was a party taking place here at Spessard Holland,” Sheriff Wayne Ivey said in the hours following the shooting.

Not all of the cases involve youths under 18, but Augello said that it is becoming a growing focus of crime-solving in Palm Bay and other cities.

“These are not the same kids we knew 20 or 30 years ago. They are desensitized. It’s really violent. We’re having kids shoot kids," he said.

"Some of these are also crimes of opportunity. Some of these crimes can be deterred but then there are crimes that, no matter how much education or community collaboration, will happen. We also are in a society, as a country, where the first action in some disagreements is to commit a violent act. How do we get past that? The only thing I can think of is to talk with the younger generation. We also need to have more community-based policing and engagement. It has to be constant engagement."

Finding solutions for Palm Bay youth

For several years, Palm Bay police have been actively engaging with youth in the city, from funding a Read and Feed program that provides hot meals and books for youth in south Melbourne to playing basketball or talking one on one.

Chief Augello said he will continue community policing and crime prevention actions in Palm Bay, pointing out law enforcement's dual role of being both servants and guardians for its citizens. He says his agency is also watching for any potential troublemakers or acts of retaliation that often come with youth violence.

So far no arrests have been made in the Sept. 12 Park Apartment shooting.

That shooting left four teens, ranging in age from 14 to 18, with non-life threatening injuries. The mother of the 18-year-old said her son was shot in both legs after someone sprayed the parking lot with bullets. The teen struggled to run to his mother’s apartment as she called the police.

Augello also said detectives also were working hard to solve the shooting deaths of the two teens killed in The Compound last December, focusing on several teens, including some who were known to belong to tight-knit groups or cliques.

They have collected text messages related to Jeremiah's case, photos, even a rap song shared on Snapchat that seemed to describe a death and carried out numerous search warrants but so far have been unable to close the case with an arrest despite the efforts of detectives.  Detectives in Melbourne have worked to see if some of the same names — including those of some younger than 18 — uncovered by Palm Bay's investigation into the Christmas homicides may be connected to the shooting death of a 16-year-old in Melbourne in May or Rondell Brown's.

Investigators in both cities, however, have kept mostly quiet about the cases, choosing not yet to go public with their findings in the shooting deaths or the names of persons of interest in the Compound and Melbourne shooting of the teen.

More: Mom seeks answers in double homicide as Palm Bay police search for suspect

“We’re very aware. And we are in communication with both families. We are very aware of where they are,” he said of the unnamed suspects in the December Compound case.

The bottom line, Augello said, is that despite the criminal acts of the last few weeks, Palm Bay remains safe.

“I live here, it is a safe city," he said.

"But we will also not rest until every violent offender will pay the consequences for their actions."

J.D. Gallop is a criminal justice/breaking news reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Gallop at 321-917-4641 or jgallop@floridatoday.com. X/Twitter: @JDGallop.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Palm Bay police, officials call for awareness in wake of gun violence